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December 27, 2012

Working Christmas

As many of you know, Tuesday was Christmas! I was kinda bumming about working on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

They days weren't as bad as they could have been.

No major crises.

Surprisingly Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas were the crazy ones.

Working Christmas gave me some reasons to be thankful.

For example...

Some of my patients did not have family that could come and see them.

They were also bummed about not being able to get out of bed.

They were in pain, from open abdominal wounds covered by wound vacs,

from knee replacements, hip replacements, and amputations.

Thanksgiving may be over, but Christmas reminds me of the things that I give thanks for as well.

I am thankful for the health of my family and friends despite me not being able to spend the special time of year with them

I also am thankful to have a job.

I also missed my family today and wished I could have been with them, instead of taking care of other people's families.

I wished I could have eaten a home-cooked dinner, instead of cafeteria food at work. I don't think that makes me a bad person.

Thank you to my husband, who stayed with me despite the choice to be with family members. He always waits up for me after work and makes me feel safe and warm.

I'm sorry that his Christmas plans were very untraditional...home alone...waiting for his wife to get home.

But I truly believe in how important it is to be thankful even the crappy circumstances. I am thankful.

I am hoping next Christmas will feel better for me. I am hoping I won't have to work both Christmas and Christmas Eve and I will decorate and make my home feel like home. It has been hard being between two houses in a holiday season.

I will admit that when I go to work every day, I am terrified that I will encounter something I can't handle: a situation that requires medical knowledge I haven't learned

Or an experience that I don't have (which happened yesterday...more to come later). Family is a good distraction from that. I am very thankful for the time I get with my family and know that they will always be there for me.

6 comments:

I'm sorry that you had to spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas at work, but I am sure that the patients you were there for were very thankful for you! That is really sweet of your hubby to wait for you. I believe every day is a reason to be thankful :D

The general practitioner that I go to see for routine medical care once told me about her time as an outpatients doctor in hospital. She said that Christmas Day always had the same three waves of patients (remember, Christmas is in summer here, so it's perfectly common for it to be about 90F+ on Christmas Day -

About 10:00am - kids coming in with knee, wrist and head injuries because they've been given new bikes, roller blades or skateboards which they've then fallen off of.

About 1:30pm - KIds coming in with stomach aches because they've (a) eaten too much, (b) eaten creamy potato salad that had been in the sun for a few hours or (c) all of the above.

About 4:00pm - Adults coming in with stab wounds (inflicted by carving knives), broken noses and collapsed cheekbones (from fists) or lacerated scalps (beer bottles being broken across the head) as family members who've gotten together for the first time all year have been drinking in the sun all day and realised they hate each other.